


Rescue the Night

by CaptainAmelia22



Series: Tumblr Drabble [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: It's not quite a threesome but it's so damn close it counts, Multi, Suit Porn, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 19:35:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1177064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainAmelia22/pseuds/CaptainAmelia22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based after Iron Man 3-Tony built Pepper a suit after the Extremis disaster.  Rhodey taught her how to fly it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rescue the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [greatbriton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/greatbriton/gifts).



> I meant to publish this earlier but work's been crazy and the Winter Soldier Super Bowl trailer happened. I wrote this for Briton for some reason that's kind of lost in a haze of exhaustion and MCU mania. 
> 
> Typical.
> 
> Love to all.
> 
> -M

Tony built Pepper a suit after the Extremis disaster.  

"It’s…"

She doesn’t have the right words to describe the silver and red suit glaring down at her from the shadows of Tony’s workshop.  It looks almost exactly like the Iron Man and War Machine suits scattered around the cluttered space and if she didn’t know better she’d just say it was just another revamped version of Tony’s or Rhodey’s suits..

It obviously isn’t.  

"We’ve been playing with designs since your…incident with AIM last Christmas."  

Rhodey is grinning at her, from around the new suit’s torso and she can’t help smiling at him in response.  He has one of those smiles that always seems to make her happy, no matter how horrible her day is going.

Which just happens to be one of those days.  

She sighs and rubs her forehead, just once, with the very tips of her fingers.  Her head is pounding-a common thing these days that she wishes she could blame on Extremis.  But it’s not because of the fire that threatens to tear her apart every time she or Tony or even Rhodey is threatened.  

It just…is.

Tony’s been gone for days, on a mission with the Avengers and she hasn’t heard from him since he left.  She wouldn’t be nervous if last Christmas hadn’t been such a fresh thing.  It wouldn’t be that big a deal, him being gone, if he wasn’t the only person in the world who knew how to fix her if something went wrong with the wiring in her head.  

So that’s why the headache.

Although having Rhodey around in the evenings during Tony’s super-secret-hero-stuff is better than being alone with her worries.

"Why are you doing this Jim?" she asks finally as Rhodey turns back to the hip socket on the new suit and begins to tighten the shiny bolt there.  "Why is Tony building suits again?"

She’s known about the suits of course.  How can she not? She’s in charge of the man’s finances after all.  But this…

This is a different level of Tony’s psychosis. 

This is like a giant rabbit in the driveway.

Only better.

"It’s called Rescue," Rhodey says and his eyes are almost sparkling as she takes a step closer to the suit and takes in the little details Tony’s added to the typical suit structure she wishes she wasn’t familiar with.  She glances at him and raises a single brow.

It’s her  _what kind of shit has Tony gotten involved with_ now look.  

Rhodey chuckles and stands out of the way so she can get a closer look.  ”It’s not a tactical armor,” he says as she steps into the towering suit’s shadow and takes in the hot metal smell of it’s entire being.  Another glance and he shrugs.  ”There’s some defensive weaponry, of course.  He’s not going to leave you stranded out there, when you’re wearing it in the field.  But he knows how much you hate guns and weapons Pepper.”  He runs his hand over the suit’s hip, up it’s waist and to the shoulder, where a tiny panel sits open.

She shivers absently at the sight of that hand stroking what apparently belongs to her and at first she doesn’t hear him continue his explanation of the new suit standing guard over them.  

She jumps when he steps up beside her and forces herself to pay attention to his explanation of the suit. 

”..It has the potential for close distance rescue and repair, also search and rescue, which is appropriate for you, don’t you think?  And he made sure-“

She cuts him off at that and backs away from the armor.  ”What does he expect me to do in this armor, Jim?!” she asks sharply as her heart hammers and her vision tunnels.  

He hesitates and swallows somewhat nervously.

"He’s not-It’s not a  _plan_  per se, Pepper, just a…contingency you could say,” he says quietly and her hands fist somewhat desperately.  He hurries to reassure her, when she takes another step back and her chest begins to heave.  ”Hey, look, this is Tony we’re talking about Pepper.  He-” he laughs bitterly at this and runs a hand over his head with a sigh. “He kind of sucks at grand gestures.  He doesn’t know the right way to ask for anything.”  

She focuses on that, on those words and narrows her eyes and takes a deep breath.

"What is he asking Jim?" she asks, her voice only a bit shaky and considering the panic she was feeling just a moment before slight burned taste at the back of her throat, she’s impressed.  "What is he doing now?"

He glances at her with a look on his face that says he wishes he could tap her on the forehead and say  _Duh_.  But he doesn’t.  

Instead he activates a code on the computer the armor is attached to and watches as the bots begin to disassemble it over the preliminary grid Tony always uses when he creates a new armor.

"He wants you to rescue him Pepper-because he knows he can’t save himself," he says as the floor hums beneath their feet and code flashes and scrolls on the screen beside them.  

She has no words.

Just…

_He wants you to rescue him Pepper._

"Oh," is all she can say as she takes in the silver and red suit Tony’s made just her her and her heart hammers painfully in her ears as she takes in it’s chilly blue glare.

Rhodey hesitates just a second and shares a glance with the blank-eyed suit.  ”How about you try it out?  Just to see for yourself what a specially tailored suit is like.”

He asks it almost as if he thinks she won’t do it but she’s always enjoyed surprising Colonel James Rhodes.  It’s one of her favorite things about him, how easily it is for her to surprise him.  She hesitates and then, with a dangerous smile and and chuckle, she nods.

"All right, what the hell!" she says as she sets her purse down and kicks out of her favorite Louis Vuitton heels.  "You say he made it for me?  Let’s give it a try!"

Rhodey’s shocked expression in that moment, as JARVIS silently starts disassembling the suit, is something that will brighten any horrible day she may have for years to come.  

"We’ll take it easy JARVIS," he says as cool metal begins to attach and slither over her skin and an arc reactor begins to glow in the suit’s chest. 

She smirks as the helmet’s face plate falls over her cheeks and her suit altered voice snarls, “Like hell JARVIS.  Sometimes you have to run, before you can walk.”  

The suit powering up and the HUD glowing in her eyes is all she hears but she’s pretty sure Rhodey says something particularly Tony Stark-esque in that moment but she doesn’t scold.

Instead…

She flies.

**

Rescue is perfect. 

She’ll give Tony that.  Rhodey’s voice is a constant presence in her right ear and the War Machine armor is always right there beside her, it’s red eyes glowing in the dark New York night.  The silver armor, restored from it’s horrible paint job and just as kitschy name, is a silent anchor for her to base every movement on and every command.

"Twist your hips just a bit to the left, Pepper," he says gently in her ear and she smiles in response despite the raging nervousness she feels at actually flying in one of Tony’s creations.  

She never counts that desperate three second flight she had in Mark 42 last year.  That is not even comparable to  _this_.

She twists her hips.

And rolls through the air.

"Oh!" she gasps as she straightens out and the boosters in her feet and palms work at correcting her balance.  "Jim!"

He chuckles and rolls over her smoothly.  ”That’s a defensive maneuver you can take when someone starts firing at you from the ground,” he says as he levels out on his back beneath her.  They’re maybe a foot apart, their suits glaring at each other and she’s suddenly very glad for the silver face plate hiding her blush.  

"Am I really going to have to make that many defensive maneuvers Jim?" she asks as he rolls once more and takes up his former position at her right-hand side.  

He doesn’t respond right away.

The wind screams by their suits’ auditory sensors for a long moment as he hesitates and she watches the HUD’s screen for a moment, taking in all that JARVIS is providing her on their surroundings. 

They’re well out of the City now-somewhere over the Atlantic and she would be nervous about that if she didn’t trust Tony’s mechanical genius and Rhodey’s obvious skill with the armors.  

He finally responds to her question.  ”Tony wants you to be ready for anyth-” he begins but in that moment a proximity alert begins to sound in both of their suits and he stops.  ”Shit,” he breathes as the bogey comes into sight and Pepper struggles to right her armor as smoothly as he rights his.  ”What is he doing here?”

"Funny," says a voice in their ears and Pepper sighs and rolls her eyes in exasperation as the bogey appears on their six o’clock and rights himself with a pointed toe, out thrust palms and a fierce glow of an arc reactor.  "I was just about to ask you two that as well," Tony Stark says from the Iron Man suit’s voice protocols.  

**

"So, what do you think?"

Tony’s sprawled on the workshop couch, shirtless and more than a little battered from whatever disaster he’s just barely averted with his team.  

Rhodey is silent, kneeling on the floor beside the couch with a First Aid kit open beside him.

Pepper stands over both of them, still in her suit, wishing for a shoulder gatling gun like War Machine’s.

She doesn’t say a word.  

The suit just continues glaring down at them.  Tony sighs and winces as Rhodey applies a butterfly bandage to a cut on his forehead.  His scarred chest is black and blue and if he wasn’t breathing she would be calling 911.  

Or carrying him herself to the nearest hospital. 

"Pep, don’t look at me like that," he groans as she shifts in the suit and the hydraulics in her hips adjust.  She rolls her eyes, knowing he won’t be able to see the worried expression on her actual face.  

Rescue’s stony glare silences him.  

"What do I think, Tony?!" she finally snaps and both men flinch at the obvious irritation in her voice.  "What I think is you’re not supposed to be building armors anymore!  You’re not supposed to even be working with SHIELD or the Avengers!  And-And why in the hell do you want me to rescue you, Tony, when you have an entire team of superheroes you can do a better job than me?!"

Pepper raises her hands at this last, at the sheepish expression Tony shoots her as Rhodey smears antiseptic over his battered skin and one of the repulsors in her palms activates.

The blast throws her arm back and she curses as papers go flying and she staggers with the rebound her action causes.  ”Crap,” she mutters as a few tools clatter to the ground and the guys flinch.  ”Sorry.”  

Tony’s lips lift in a sly grin and Rhodey’s eyes sparkle as he rises and heads towards her.  ”Want us to get you out of that?” he asks as she stares at her palms and tries to keep calm.

She raises her face to his and nods minutely.  ”Yes please,” she whispers as his fingers move around the suit’s helmet to the latch at the back.  He hums for a second as he works at the latch and suddenly the helmet is sliding free and she can breathe freely. 

She didn’t notice suffocating until Rhodey freed her. 

Tony chuckles as he comes up behind her and activates some of the code on the computer.  The bots under their feet hum as they once more appear and begin sliding the pieces of the suit off her limbs and with each piece she breathes a little easier.

She doesn’t notice Tony’s gentle kisses on her revealed skin until most of the suit is gone.  She doesn’t notice the soothing circles Rhodey’s rubbed on her palm until the spinal column of the Rescue suit has slid away into the hip quadrant.  

Both men are smiling gently at her, their expressions mirror images of the others and she can’t help smiling back as they help her free of the boots.  

"You pull off that armor really well Pep," Tony says as he presses a kiss to the hollow beneath her ear and leads her to the couch.  "And you’re a better hero than me," he whispers so only she can hear and she jumps in surprise at this tender and completely unusual declaration.  He simply grins and nips affectionately at her earlobe.  She sighs and leans into him as Rhodey drops her hand and begins heading towards the workshop doors but she throws out a hand and stops him.

"James," she says, her voice ragged.  "Wait I-"

He glances back at her and smiles slightly.  ”Tony’s right Pepper,” he says as she pulls him just a bit towards her and Tony.  ”You were amazing in that armor tonight.  It suits you.”  

She smiles despite herself, her earlier irritation at Tony forgotten and memories of the silver War Machine and the gold and scarlet Iron Man flying beside her on the way home once more wash over her and she laughs. 

"Thank you," she says as she finally pulls him close enough to press a kiss to his lips.  "Thank you for taking me flying."  

His surprised expression is one of her favorite things about him.  

Tony’s warm laughter washes over them as she deepens the kiss and as Tony trails kisses over her shoulders and into her neck she realizes Rhodey’s steady presence is her second favorite thing about him.  

"My pleasure, ma’am," he says, his voice husky as their lips trail over each other’s bodies and hands fumble at clothes.  

Pepper finds herself hoping the three of them will keep on flying together.  


End file.
